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Monthly Archives: September 2016

A recent decision by the Technology and Construction Court (‘TCC’) in the UK poses a warning to adjudicators acting on multiple disputes within the same project. In Beumer Group UK Ltd v Vinci Construction UK Ltd [2016] EWHC 2283 (TCC) a subcontractor, Beumer, brought concurrent adjudications against: the Head Contractor, Vinci, for a declaration that three…

This blog post was written by James McMillan, a partner at Kensington Swan specialising in commercial litigation, insolvency and restructuring. This was one of the comments from over 400 tradespeople surveyed last year after the IRD ran a campaign with the message that tradespeople needed to declare all their income ‘or risk everything.’ The IRD reported…

This blog post was written by Paul Buetow, a partner at Kensington Swan specialising in construction and infrastructure law. Late last week the ATAP (Auckland Transport Alignment Project) final report was released. The ATAP process has focused on central and local government working together to assess Auckland’s transport issues and how to respond to them.…

This blog post was written by James McMillan, a partner at Kensington Swan specialising in insolvency and restructuring. Rhys Cain and Rees Logan, the liquidators of the three Stonewood companies that went into receivership and then liquidation earlier this year, have obtained $1 million in funding to investigate why the companies failed. The liquidators say that they…

A worker at a South Canterbury building company, Rickie Shore Building Limited, suffered a fall on site in October last year. The company plead guilty to a Health and Safety Act charge of failing to take steps to ensure the safety of the employee. The fall occurred after the worker had incorrectly installed a floor…

While BIM is still a relatively new concept in the NZ construction landscape it is important that we catch up with this important technology pretty quickly. The UK provides an interesting model for BIM adoption and it would be good to see it implemented in NZ. For those who are a little unsure what BIM…

Iran first announced its reform of foreign investment in the oil and gas sector in November 2015. About 50 oil and gas projects were intended to be developed by foreign investors with local partners under a new scheme. Cabinet approved the general terms of the new scheme on 3 August 2016. Some expect the first…

MBIE has opened public consultation on the new earthquake-prone building (EPB) regulations and methodology. This is to inform the Building (Earthquake-Prone Buildings) Amendment Act, which will come into effect in 2017. Consultation will run until 15 December 2016. Submissions have been requested on both the proposed EPB methodology, and regulations relating to: The definition of…

London’s Crossrail project is a new 118km railway line development due to open in December 2018. The project’s main feature is a set of new 21km twin tunnels. The project also includes the development of 40 new stations. Large projects such as this carry more complexity (and therefore risk) which lead to costs over and…

Just when you thought it was over, the infamous fencegate returns to headlines. This time the ‘neighbours at war’ feud is going to the High Court after the Wellington City Council decided to appeal the Environment Court decision. As a brief recap, the Aitchisons’ neighbour constructed a fence-esque structure along the border between the two…